Knoxville scraps recycling rewards program

KNOXVILLE (WATE) – The City of Knoxville is scrapping its recycling rewards program.

Since the program began in 2011, the 20,000 homeowners signed up for the curbside recycling program have had the option to earn rewards from Recyclebank based on the amount of material they recycled.

On Wednesday, they announced they were canceling the program altogether.

Earlier this month, the city stopped basing the rewards on the amount recycled and instead averaged the points out over all homeowners.

“Even before this change, our participation rates were low when compared to the overall costs to the City for the rewards program,” said David Brace, the City’s Public Service Director. “We expect this change would reduce that participation even further, so working with our contractor we have decided to end our participation in the Recyclebank program.”

Participating residents received an email Wednesday morning saying that beginning April 30, they will no longer gain points for recycling.

Curbside recycling itself will not be affected by the announcement.

Points already accrued can still be redeemed on the Recyclebank website, but will expire within a year if not used.